Lucha Worth Watching: Mask Matches and Family Feuds 10/12/15 & 11/8/15

Mascara contra Mascara: Molotov vs. Lestat, CMLL (10/12/15)

Two guys I don't watch that much, having a mask match. Lestat has been king of the mask match this year in Puebla, taking a mask just a couple months prior from King Jaguar. That's right. THEE King Jaguar. He's a Puebla undercarder, and Molotov is a CMLL undercarder who doesn't make TV that often but has shown improvement in the last few years. Lestat is clearly a Jeff Hardy obsessive, who potentially knows a guy who knows a guy who wants to push him to mask match glory. The match itself was poorly structured, but both men were clearly working hard. Lestat is kind of a slow motion Blitzkrieg, but worked in several fun swanton variations: a couple big ones from the top rope, a big one climbing the ropes, and tossed out a couple asai moonsault variations. The structure was all wack as we had several moments where a guy would take a big move, but then that guy would be on his feet first to deliver the next big move. It got kind of ridiculous after awhile. Lestat hits a big moonsault to the floor, landing on his feet, yet Molotov recovers faster and gets back in the ring to deliver a dive of his own. There were several moments like that. We also got a hilarious moment where Lestat yanked off Molotov's mask (Molotov had ripped at Lestat's in the primera), and Tirantes went to DQ him, and Lestat started begging and begging and getting on his knees apologizing to not be DQ'd (Molotov had won the primera so this would have meant Lestat's mask). It's a strange sight to see a tecnico doing something illegal and then begging the referee to not punish him. Who could get behind that kind of weenie?! When I was in 2nd grade, Mrs. Setterlund had a "punishment board" that was a physical three tier system of punishment. There were three levels: 1. Warning, 2. Lose a Recess, 3. Principal's Office. She had clothespins with all of our names written on them, and if you did something to warrant it, your clothespin would get moved from the "Not a Horrible Child" portion, down to the "On Warning" section, and so on. Since I was a constant chatterer, I would regularly see my clothespin moved into section 1 and 2, but never section 3. It usually took a LOT to get a visit to the principal's office. But one day I must have been particularly restless and got my clothespin moved down to dreaded section 3. And then I proceeded to run across the classroom and tearfully BEG to not have my pin moved to section 3. It was pathetic. I begged and pleaded and made promises as my mind rushed with all sorts of terrible things that would happen if my mom found out I had been sent to the principal's office. And eventually, Mrs. Setterlund relented, and I avoided further punishment, while I assume losing the respect of every single person of every age who witnessed it. And that was Lestat. Lestat was 2nd grade me. Crowds didn't want to root for 2nd grade me.

Also funny, is the longer the match went on, the more I felt like the lucha smoothness was hurting things. As in, both guys were trained a certain way. There was a certain slickness to their movements, that smoother lucha style. And I kept thinking that if this were worked in some garage but a couple of bad body guys in jean shorts, it would feel like a gritty war with tons of crazy spots and violent thud bumps. Not that Arena Puebla is a classy place, but it's an established professional arena, and the violence doesn't translate as well when done by guys in wide leg neon vinyl pants. I honestly think you can take this exact same match, hold it in a parking lot before a Raiders game, and have it between Shane Stevens and Shane "Gator" Stephens and suddenly I'd say "Man who the hell are these lunatics!?" But alas, it was not between two Shanes, and it had none of the drama of your good mask matches. Still, a man who you might not have known, lost his mask. This seems at least somewhat notable.

Dinastia Navarro vs. Dinastia Panther, All Elite 11/8/15

Alternate, more complete, but not as pretty fancam

Yay internet! I love family affair lucha matches, there's always a little added element of pride and the crowd gets buzzing for that familia atmosphere. It's structure is exactly what you expect, and it's goooood. Tons of matwork and grappling trade-offs in the primera, very short segunda with Navarros getting their submissions back, and a tercera that peaks with a beautiful dive and the two maestros squaring off. The mat stuff is predictably wonderful. Trauma I ends the segunda with his nasty indian deathlock into a violent twisting crescendo. Panther Jr. ends the primera by muscling Navarro to the ground and wrenching in a Fujiwara. BP and Trauma II go at it like men and the grappling is excellent. They both throw in little touches of professionalism, like BP slyly moving his leg away from Trauma's grasp moments before Trauma even blindly grabs back at the leg. Both lock on and slither out of nice indian deathlock variations but it doesn't feel exhibition-y, while it does feel nice and show-offy, seeing who can bust out freakier stuff. Trauma II is an absolute beast throughout this, being the only one who really laces into anybody with strikes, and BP Jr. pays him back at one point with an awesome ropewalk dropkick 3/4 of the way across the ring. Awesome spot. The Panther hits a super fast bullet tope to clear the ring, and we get the BP/Navarro showdown where they break out fun reversals and the gorgeous somewhat slower gracefulness of two masters comes into play. Navarro appeared slightly wooden in this and looked to have trouble bumping to the floor earlier, but it was clear he was saving his gas for Panther and I thank him for it. It wouldn't have taken much more for me to bump this up closer to MOTY list, just felt like it needed a couple more runs. Of the two videos linked, the top one is gorgeously clear, but has "down time" edited out. You get most of the action, but it's choppy. The second video is the whole thing, but shot from farther away, and the first 6 minutes are shaky and partially blocked by the referee. The first one you get a much greater sense of how hard Trauma II's shots are landing, and obviously all the mat transitions and work itself is so much clearer. The second video is a nice companion, as you get more crowd noise (and it appears to be filmed from a pro-Dinastia Navarro section) so you get a good gauge of how the crowd starts pro Navarro and by the end shifts to cheering both teams. I also includes what happens between the 2da and 3ra, which is mainly The Panther nicely selling the brutal T1 submission that took him out of the fall. For me, it made things mean a LOT more important to see Panther getting tended to, walking off his injury and gutting things through. Watch it, and thank the internet.